Vastly bewildering at first, ‘Delusions’ is not merely a re-tread of its predecessor, To-Mera’s 2006 debut album ‘Transcendental’; it’s more of a sequel. All good sequels take the original and stretch its boundaries and twist its vision, and ‘Delusions’ does just that; where ‘Transcendental’ took a (relatively) gentle approach to showcasing the band’s brand of hard-edged progressive metal, ‘Delusions’ throws caution to the wind and adopts a much more aggressive, in-your-face approach, churning up and serving a variety of off-beat influences from the heaviest Twenty-First century progressive metal to the weirdest Seventies prog rock with a hint of jazz for good measure.

As such, this album is not an easy ride by any count. In sixty-two minutes Julie Kiss, Tom MacLean, Lee Barrett, Hugo Sheppard and Paul Westwood serve up just eight songs, each taking many a twist and turn before reaching their conclusion. With more riffs and time changes than the first four Dream Theater albums, the songs on offer often seem to spiral out of control, freewheel burnin’ and almost threatening to come off the rails altogether; it’s equal parts progressive technical metal, metal female voices opulence and inspired craziness, held together at times only by the lifeblood of Ms Kiss’s breathtaking vocals. Check out opener ‘The Lie’, a sledgehammer of a beast with a wholly unexpected swing-time mid-section and a menacing marshal beat as the song starts to play out, driven on by Westwood who drums like a man possessed and who at the drop of a hat ranges from the deftest of drum fills to hammering away like he’s building a garden shed.

Whether you can get into the songs or not – and I have a feeling that ‘Delusions’ may be a little too off-the-wall for some people – To-Mera’s musicianship cannot be faulted. Julie Kiss is one of the true greats of the MFV scene and her vocals are mesmerising across the range of the band’s material, as particularly illustrated on ‘Fallen From Grace’. Elsewhere, the lengthy instrumental passages give the guys chance to shine; the extended guitar and keyboard solos from MacLean and Sheppard respectively are both inspirational and exceptional, and combined with Barrett’s and Westwood’s often off-beat rhythmic backbone create passionate soundscapes.

With ‘A Sorrow To Kill’ being perhaps a tad more controlled than it’s album-mates, and ‘Asylum’ wearing its prog rock influences firmly on its sleeve, it’s up to the marvellously overblown ‘Temptation’ to wrap things up. ‘Delusions’ is a complex and exciting album from a band that goes out of its way to beguile and bewilder, and when you get fully acquainted with it – rather than just being nodding strangers in the street – you’ll find a whole range of tricks and treats you didn’t notice on those first few plays. To mis-quote McCoy, "It’s metal, Jim, but not as some people know it…"